August 3rd

1492 - Christopher Columbus left Palos, Spain with three ships. The voyage would lead him to what is now known as the Americas. He reached the Bahamas on October 12.

1750 - Christopher Dock completed the first book of teaching methods. It was titled "A Simple and Thoroughly Prepared School Management."

1880 - The American Canoe Association was formed at Lake George, NY.

1900 - Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. was founded.

1923 - Calvin Coolidge was sworn in as the 30th president of the U.S. after the sudden death of President Harding.

1933 - The Mickey Mouse Watch was introduced for the price of $2.75.

1936 - Jesse Owens won the first of his four Olympic gold medals.

1943 - Gen. George S. Patton verbally abused and slapped a private. Later, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered him to apologize for the incident.

1949 - The National Basketball Association (NBA) was formed. The league was formed by the merger between the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball League.

1979 - Johnny Carson, the "Tonight Show" host, was on the cover of the Burbank, CA, telephone directory.

1981 - U.S. traffic controllers with PATCO, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization, went on strike. They were fired just as U.S. President Reagan had warned.

1984 - Mary Lou Retton won a gold medal at the Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

1985 - Mail service returned to a nudist colony in Paradise Lake, FL. Residents promised that they’d wear clothes or stay out of sight when the mailperson came to deliver.

2004 - In New York, the Statue of Liberty re-opened to the public. The site had been closed since the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001.

2004 - NASA launched the spacecraft Messenger. The 6 1/2 year journey was planned to arrive at the planet Mercury in March 2011.